How do you get your wood home?

I have a pickup truck that is getting a little old. I’m looking at new trucks but I keep noticing how I could spend much less money for a car that would also be much more fuel efficient. Then I have to ask myself “how would I get my wood home?”. Some cars let you fold down the back seat and open the truck for a couple boards per trip but I can’t see anyway to get a sheet of ply home.

Do all of us just own trucks?

-- Wipe the blood stains from your blade before coming in.--

59 replies so far

On the job even owning a pickup truck I sometimes get wood delivered to me. It might cost you 20 or 30 bucks a trip, but owning a truck sure cost some $$$$. Just how much ply do you use a year? It might even be cheaper to rent a truck for a day…

I just borrow my Wife’s minivan which (just) allows a 4’ wide sheet to pass and the length is 9’. I still have to take out 2 captian’s chairs and a bench seat. I drive 32 miles one way for work and I have to drive a car that gets 30 mpg. I was spending over $60.00/tank of gas when the prices were high.

I have three pick ups ( self employed, roofing), all with lumber/ladder racks and a open 5’ x 8’ trailer. The trailer wood work well if all I had was a car. Cheap, lower insurance, less maintenance and can be used for other projects.

I use a p/u truck, but have been thinking about a trailer. If all you neeed to pickup is wood in fairly small amounts (up to a half ton), I’d think about the trailer. Everything but a compact car is pretty much capable of pulling a small trailer.

I’ve got an old pickup truck that I drive to the lumber yard and back and that’s about it.

Before we had that, I loaded everything into the back of my 2004 Pontiac Grand Am. The only problems I had where with sheet goods. I could never get anything 4’ wide in the car. However, once I was able to get tree bales of welded wire and 15 fence posts in the back. I had guys in trucks sitting, watching, and taking bets against me getting it all in and on the road. I did it, though.

I haul it home in my truck. I also own three full sized pick-ups so I have a choice as to which one to use. But, if I tried to use my wife’s I am sure she would object since that one is definately not a working truck. But, to tell the truth, when it comes to hauling I could pack more in my old minivan, when I had it, than I can my pickup. I hauled loads of 16’ base, crown, and quarter round in it by opening the passenger window and could even shut the hatch.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

If you own a truck and it is paid for why incur a new bill. My truck is a 1999 and paid for. I could not live withoiut my truck. As for fuel effiency, how many tankfuls to recoup the cost of a new vehicle? Keep the truck and use the money saved to buy more wood.

-- Bill - If I knew GRANDKIDS were so much fun I would have had them first.

I built two roof racks for different cars and carried tons of wood over the years on them. The problem with the new cars is they don’t have the rain gutter rails the cars used to have to put the straps on. If your car does have a strap secure spot I’d build a roof rack. Really works good for me.

A had a Ford Ranger (‘93) that was a tough little truck. It did however lack cab space, an automatic tranny, 4X4, and a long bed. (It had a 6’ bed.)

So in late 2003, I went up in truck…

Fuel milage is not great (duh!), but that’s not why I got it. It has the extended cab, auto tranny, 4X4, and, most important, and 8’ bed. I do allot more than just woodworking, so if I need to haul machinery, concrete, stone, pavers, etc etc etc, I’m covered with a 14,500lb GCWR rating and 3000lbs capacity in the bed. (Already hauled 4500lbs of oversize riverstone in the bed with no problem.)

I have a mid-sized car and a small SUV. I kinda lean toward thinking I would rent a truck if I had to haul several sheets of 4×8 plywood or sheetrock.

I have to admit I have used a utility knife and straight edge to cut down a couple sheets of sheetrock while at a box store (after I paying for them). This particular store had a person monitoring cars leaving the enclosed yard area. The clerk would look at your sales slip and glance into your vehicle to make sure you weren’t making off with more than you paid for. I was not sure if the clerk would recognize what I had in the car was once a couple of full sheets of sheetrock. Anyway it worked out.

As I get more into woodworking, I seem to ponder with greater frequency, “just how am I going to get this or that home?” I could call a friend or my Brother to use their pickups or to ask them to help haul, but I don’t want to over do it.

Sheet goods can be rough on the interior of a car, so maybe renting a pickup is the way to go.

I also have the added difficulty of just wanting to go pick up like one or two sheets of ply on a whim. I might wake up on a Saturday morning and its sunny and warm and I decided to build a cabinet for my drill press to sit on. This past Saturday I picked up 10 board feet of red oak and made a coat rack/ shelf with some drawers. I didn’t know I was going to do that Friday night. Its nice to be able to just go and get your wood when you want as often as you want and not have to worry about getting a quantity worth the expense of a rental truck. I barely have room for a shop in my garage so a trailer is out of the question. Another issue I have is that I’ve never owned a car. Every vehicle I’ve ever had was a pickup. The thought of owning a car is scary, like I’m going to paint myself into a corner.

Last spring we traded the F150 for the E350 15-passenger van. I can get 12’ boards in there but they go between the 2 front seats. Since I deliver some of the stuff I make and we have 2 kids and 2 large dogs the van was a better fit for us. It gets the same mileage as I was getting in the F150 which beats the F150 when I had to use a trailer for delivering furniture.